Fire Away! 'Star Wars' Missile Defense Quiz

In 1983, U.S. President Ronald Reagan announced a new plan for protecting against a nuclear strike: the Strategic Defense Initiative. Reagan's idea almost immediately earned the unwelcome nickname "Star Wars." How much do you know about the other "Star Wars"?

Supporters of the program wanted a name that conveyed excitement and reflected a new era of the nuclear arms race.

Detractors chose the name based on their concerns that the proposed technologies were straight out of a science-fiction movie.

As a former Hollywood star, you might assume Reagan would appreciate having his defense initiative named after one of the most popular movies of all time. In reality, he saw the name for what it was: a jab at the seeming impracticality of shooting down intercontinental ballistic missiles in space.

Reagan had just wrapped up a "Star Wars" movie marathon before telling the nation about the program.

Question 2 of 20

What was President Reagan's ultimate goal for the "Star Wars" program?

To end the Cold War by forcing the Soviet Union into a costly and unsustainable arms race

To rid the world of nuclear weapons by creating a defense system that neutralized their threat

Reagan anticipated that SDI might force the Soviets into an unsustainable spending frenzy and force them to negotiate over nuclear arms, but his ultimate goal was to render nuclear weapons obsolete by building a worldwide defense system against them.

To scare the Soviets into reducing their nuclear arms by demonstrating America's superior technology

Question 3 of 20

Which of the following wasn't one of the ways scientists and engineers proposed to shoot down ICBMs?

Orbiting lasers powered by nuclear bombs

Satellite-mounted rail guns capable of firing slugs at thousands of feet per second

Giant nets attached to satellites and capable of entangling ICBMs and throwing them off course

While all of the weapons considered for the "Star Wars" program were pretty out there (literally), giant space nets weren't ever a consideration.

Question 4 of 20

Which of the following is NOT a real acronym for a "Star Wars" weapon?

With names like CHECMATE and MIRACL, you get the feeling that the people behind "Star Wars" had some fun coming up with intimidating names for the system's weaponry. SMASHR, however, wasn't one of them.

Question 5 of 20

About a year after President Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, James A. Abrahamson was appointed its leader. Abrahamsom was fresh from which agency?

The U.S. Air Force

Abrahamson was a military man, with a background in aeronautical engineering, who went on to work for Oracle, NASA and others after his "Star Wars" stint.

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency

The U.S. Department of Energy

Question 6 of 20

What was one of the many reasons the X-ray laser -- one of the proposed "Star Wars" weapons -- never got off the ground?

The laser required too much power to operate in space.

Because the laser was to be powered by a nuclear explosion while orbiting the Earth, it would have violated a treaty banning space-based weapons of mass destruction.

As preposterous as the X-ray laser seemed, it got some serious funding under "Star Wars." Unfortunately, in addition to major technical hurdles hampering its development, it also violated the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

The X-ray project director was laughed out of the room for proposing a nuclear explosion-powered space laser and never got a dime in funding.

Question 7 of 20

What was Reagan's timeline for the completion of the "Star Wars" program?

Five years

15 years

As long as it took

What many critics of "Star Wars" don't realize is that President Reagan knew from the outset that the program might take decades before producing an effective missile defense shield. Reagan hoped that future presidents would see the initiative's importance and carry it forward, but the end of the Cold War drastically changed the United States' defense priorities.

Question 8 of 20

Which of the following was a positive outcome of "Star Wars"?

It played a major role in forcing the Soviet Union to the bargaining table to discuss nuclear arms reductions.

Because the Soviets considered "Star Wars" such a threat to the established balance of power, they agreed to talks over reducing nuclear armaments.

It gave the United States its first operating, though highly limited, ICBM defense system.

Debates over space lasers gave political talk shows a huge ratings boost.

Question 9 of 20

What ultimately became of "Star Wars"?

After the end of the Cold War, Reagan agreed to eliminate the program.

President H.W. Bush ordered a thorough review of the program shortly after gaining office, changing the program's focus to protecting against terrorists and rogue nations.

While President Reagan remained convinced that "Star Wars" could lead to a nuclear free world, President Bush facilitated a massive restructuring of the program to meet the emerging threats of a post-Cold War world.

Question 10 of 20

What does the acronym MAD stand for in the context of "Star Wars"?

Mutually assured destruction

While President Reagan might have argued "B" was a better answer, the idea of mutually assured destruction helped keep the peace between the United States and the Soviet Union for decades by guaranteeing that launching a nuclear attack would mean the end of your own country as well.

Mostly asinine doctrine

Mobile artillery defense

Question 11 of 20

How did "Star Wars" come about?

The American public demanded protection against the Soviet's nuclear weapons.

President Reagan decided it was vital for America's security.

Although a few scientists in the early 1980s argued that the United States should pursue a large-scale ballistic missile defense system, "Star Wars" was a top-down initiative driven by Reagan's hope for a world free of nukes.

Engineers and scientists insisted they had the technology to put the program in place, forcing a formal policy review and adoption of the program.

Question 12 of 20

Why was the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty a problem for "Star Wars"?

It limited the number of ground-based missile defense installations allowable, crippling the United States' efforts to build a missile defense shield.

The ABM Treaty limited the number of ground-based missile defense systems which, while only one part of the "Star Wars" program, were critical to the new defense initiative's success. The United States ultimately withdrew from the ABM Treaty in 2002.

It prohibited the United States from using lasers to destroy ICBMs.

It didn't. President Reagan notified the Soviet Union that the United States was withdrawing from the treaty as soon as he entered office.

Question 13 of 20

How did U.S. allies react to the news of "Star Wars"?

With a mixture of astonishment, concern and curiosity

Like many policymakers and political pundits, the United States' allies didn't quite know how to react when Reagan announced "Star Wars." While they remained concerned that the program would lead to an escalated arms race, they also recognized its potential for creating a safer world.

Enthusiastically, since the shield would protect them as well as the United States

Harshly, as they considered the program both dangerous for disrupting the established balance of power and a signal that the United States was abandoning them and looking out only for itself.

Question 14 of 20

Which of the following was one of President Reagan's reasons for pursuing "Star Wars"?

Reagan wanted the option to initiate a nuclear attack while ensuring that a Soviet counterstrike would be ineffective.

The Soviet Union was pursuing its own missile defense system, and the United States didn't want to be left behind.

The Soviet Union had a commanding lead over the United States in the number of ICBMs it possessed.

In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union had more than twice as many ICBMs as the United States, an advantage that worried Reagan and prompted him to find a way to neutralize the Soviet Unions' threat.

Question 15 of 20

Which of the following was NOT a potential defense against "Star Wars"?

Launching decoy missiles to confuse the missile defense weaponry

Overwhelming the defense system by launching more missiles than it could handle

While the Soviets considered "Star Wars" to be a credible threat to their national security, they knew that the system wasn't foolproof and that they had a number of options for disrupting it. Still, electromagnetic interference wasn't one of them.

Question 16 of 20

What was Brilliant Pebbles?

A proposed network of thousands of satellites capable of shooting down ICBMs with watermelon-sized projectiles

Brilliant Pebbles was an ambitious but promising initiative that would have placed 4,000 satellites into space, each capable of communicating with each other and autonomously shooting down Soviet missiles while they orbited the Earth.

The name of a covert operation to discover the Soviet Union’s ICBM locations and targeting capabilities

A short-lived spinoff of "The Flintstones"

Question 17 of 20

Which of the following mishaps actually happened during the development of "Star Wars"?

The United States accidentally destroyed a communications satellite while launching a decoy ballistic missile.

A rocket sled used as part of a ballistic missile interceptor jumped tracks during launch, destroying itself in the process.

When developing something as complicated as ballistic missile defense system, there are bound to be mistakes. That was definitely the case during the testing of High Endoatmospheric Defense Interceptor (HEDI), which was designed to destroy Soviet missiles descending toward their targets. Unfortunately, the only thing HEDI destroyed was itself during testing at the White Sands Missile Range.

Sensor technology lost track of a test missile and targeted a passenger plane during a simulation.

Question 18 of 20

What percentage of the Soviet Union’s nuclear arsenal was phase one of "Star Wars" designed to destroy?

50 percent

"Star Wars" was designed to be a three phase initiative, and phase one was designed to destroy at most 50 percent of the Soviet’s nuclear arsenal. As the program progressed, however, the impossibility of wiping out the Soviet Union’s entire nuclear strike became apparent.

75 percent

Hopefully 100 percent, right?

Question 19 of 20

How much was the first phase of "Star Wars" projected to cost?

$20 billion

$150 billion

$150 billion is a lot of money. Once the Cold War had ended, the astronomical costs of the program simply couldn’t be justified. As a result, the scale and direction of the United States’ missile defense efforts changed drastically.

$1.2 trillion

Question 20 of 20

Which of the following is a real component of the United States' missile defense system in 2011?

A ground-based thermal tracking missile capable of tracking and destroying an ICBM in orbit

A plane-mounted chemical laser capable of destroying a missile during its boost phase

Boeing is working closely with the U.S. Missile Defense Agency to develop the Airborne Laser Test Bed (ALTB), a plane-mounted missile defense laser. The laser successfully destroyed a boosting missile in February of 2010.